When I was at the local Teavana store on Saturday, I let my nose pick the teas du jour. As the sales associate fanned this herbal blend my way, it immediately struck a nerve in my sweet tooth (teeth). I could be happy just snorting this one all day. It smelled like a delicious chocolate and caramel candy bar.

Several minutes after I opened the container to brew the tea this morning, I had to snap myself out of the aroma euphoria so I could steep it. I brewed the blend at 205 degrees (my tea maker doesn’t have a recommended 208 degrees setting) for six minutes.

The steeped aroma wasn’t nearly as impressive as the unbrewed odor but there was a faint caramel scent detectable in the cup when I plunged my nose into it. The color was a muddy gold.

I was initially disappointed after the first sip. The flavor did not have anything approaching the impact of the aroma. However, as I determinedly sipped more and more from my cup (I REALLY wanted to like this tea), a nice sweet caramel taste began to accumulate and linger on my taste buds.

After two cups of this herbal blend, I concluded that, although this tea is a slow starter, if you don’t give up on it, you will eventually be rewarded with a relatively full and defined sweet caramel flavor. The sea salt factor didn’t seem to identify itself for me.

This tea is smooth without bitterness. I enjoyed the second cup much more than the first, even though both cups were steeped in the same pot at the same time. If you are a patient tea drinker, you might like it too!

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I ventured into the world of serious tea drinking in the Summer of 2011. I started out slowly and gently with bagged tea but climbed to the incredible flavorful heights of loose leaf teas in October of that year. Once you go leaf, you never go bag (except when you get free samples)!